The Last Bite
Chapter One: Freedom and Capture
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Greek myth gods or goddesses or anything from Dante's Inferno
This is my first Greek Myth story so please go easy. Oh, and sorry if I got some things screwed up, I sort of threw in some Dante's Inferno cuz that version of the Underworld is just amazing…in a sinister way of course, ha.
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It was only when the sunlight first caressed her face that she sank her teeth into it, allowed the red juices that strikingly resembled blood to fill her mouth and color her lips, thin streaks falling down her chin as though she were bleeding. The sweet taste burst on her tongue, tasting as lovely as what she now had, tasting as wonderful and glorious as this moment—the moment she entered the world of life again.
The blue sky was as endless as she remembered it, the fields as green and coated in flowers of all kinds, courteous of her overjoyed mother. The rustle of leaves, the smell of grass—it all put breath back in her lungs as the red juices fell to the grass at her feet as she lowered the succulent fruit She could not decide where to look…
Until she saw her. From the trees, the sun dappled domain of the forest, her mother emerged, a smile on her lips as her green eyes—so like the earth she controlled—watered with tears of joy.
They stood frozen, staring at each other for a breathless second as they searched one another, and she saw her mother's eyes greedily search her, the daughter she had for so long been denied…
And then her lips parted, and on a sobbing breath the pomegranate tumbled from her pale hand to the ground. "Persephone…"
And as the girl raced into her mother's arms, crying along with her, the sun shown brightly down upon them as the world rejoiced the return of the doomed Persephone, brought back to life by her mother's love.
And on the ground, forgotten beneath the burning sunlight, the pomegranate shriveled up in a puddle of its own sweet, red juices…
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It was supposed to end with that; it should have ended with that. Persephone was safely back on the Earth again, in her mother's gentle care a top Mount Olympus, reinstated as the maiden of spring as she was born to be. The earth flourished again, and all rejoiced; there were no tears, no worries, no pains…
At least, there weren't on Earth…
Far below the surface of the fertile planet, in a place no one wished to venture into, the Underworld was even darker than it normally was as the King of it all, that gruesome place of darkness, mourned the lose of the one being—the only one—he truly had.
Or at least, the only person he had had. Now that she was gone, there was just nothing, nothing at all. He sat a top his throne—nothing unusual in the pose. It was always his throne, that dark silver piece of metal, so cold and dripping in diamonds, that he went to to seek solace.
He was not sure why he found such solace in the cold metal, in the echoing room that it sat in. All he could think of was that he loved it simply because it was so cold, so isolated, so…dead. It was all he had now, his title and riches—his only company in this dark world. And if he did not have them, then he would surely just become part of the shadows again, a lost soul like those he took in, allowed to pass through.
Ironic, wasn't it? That the Lord of the Dead, Hades himself, was as dead inside as those he ruled over. Such a thought would have made him smile before, that long year ago before his dark existence had been altered, and that single ray of light dared penetrate the darkness.
That single ray of light that he himself had caught, yearned for, taken in… All for himself. That ray of light that had managed to lighten his black soul, that single ray of light that had shown him more than just death and gloom and despair, but the light side of light, the things he had always been deprived of. Happiness, joy, laughter, smiles, kindness, sincerity, trust…love. Oh yes, there had been love; he had certainly, more than anything, learned about love. That wicked, destroying emotion…
That ray of light that had intrigued him so was supposed to stay separate from him, beneficial only to his world, but never to him; never to the great Hades, who refused to feel such foolish things…
But that light…That woman…
Even now the thought of her had his breath quickening, his black heart fluttering. Her name, her existence, her light—it all had him feeling that cursed emotion he wished he could cut out, that emotion that haunted him far worse than any malevolent spirit could. That damn, horrid love…
She was the cause of everything wrong with him now, the cause of the downfall of the great Hades. He had been fine before her, perfect even in his dead lifestyle; and she had woken him up, brought him out of the coffin that he had confined himself into. And at first he had not minded it, even exulted in it, to be free of all that burdening darkness…
But he had never expected that light to ever leave him. If he had known that the light would turn frigid and turn away from him, if he had known that for all he had given her she still saw him as her captor, he would never have come up from his grave, would have never dared tried to enter that light.
He wished he could hate her for it, for tempting him, giving him something that was so painful and beautiful at the same time, but he could not; not when it had never been her fault in the first place.
He had doomed himself, he knew, just by kidnapping her, stealing her from the world of light that she was so accustomed to and forcing her to be his light and his light only, the thing that showed him what it was like to actually live, to feel, even in such a drab place that he could never escape from. His own damned curiosity, he knew, had resulted in this moment, this lowest point in all of his dark existence. He was the reason why he was sitting here alone in his dark throne room, staring at the shadows that constantly played about on the walls; all by his own doing had he ended up here, the smaller throne next to his unbearably empty, never to be filled again.
He was alone with his shadows and his pain, while up above she kept on living, now even happier, he was sure, that she was released from him forever—after all, she had not eaten the pomegranate, his last hope at being able to ever see her again in all her light, her fiery glory. He now had only the frail, fragile memories of her to last him an entire millennium and beyond, the curse of being an immortal, to haunt him. Her glowing blue eyes, as glorious as the sky he hardly ever saw, and her tumble of long red hair, flowing freely about her like a river of fire, a beacon in the darkness. And her laugh that was so infectious had filled up the entire empty throne room with no trouble, and her burning smile that knocked the breath from his lungs…
And her voice, sweeter than any Siren's, speaking to him, only to him, for him, in the gentlest of tones…
Not a girl but a woman she had been, when she had dwelled down here in Hell with him. And although he had fallen for her, he was aware, painfully so, that the woman he had taken as his wife—now ex wife as it was decreed—could never reciprocate his feelings. How could she? Who possibly could? While he was in the prime of his eternal existence, he still reeked of death, and was as cold as a corpse—the merits of being the Lord of the Underworld. And although he had riches beyond compare, he knew that that did little to impress her; the woman he loved, fiery sweet Persephone, would never be tempted in such a way. She was pure, light, sweet…The opposite of all he was, and now that she was gone…That part of him was missing. To be half a man, half a god…
The wine glass made of pure glass he held in his hand was half way gone, and with little ceremony he downed the rest, the blood red liquid sweet and bitter in his mouth, everything she was. And he could almost say that it tasted like a pomegranate…
He had given her the fruit as a last resort; he knew that they were coming for her. After a year long of keeping her to himself Demeter had become fed up and gone to Zeus, who under the Earth goddess's threats and demands had sent Hermes down to collect the stolen maiden.
It had been right in front of these thrones—their thrones—that he had offered her the succulent fruit with excuse that she would need her energy for the ride home. She had always been, for the most part, naïve, so he had not expected resistance. But this time, in that moment, she had not cared the least bit for him or his pathetic piece of fruit; instead her mind had been full of her mother and the world of light in which she had long been denied.
Her goodbye to him had been a smile, the pomegranate clutched loosely in her hand as she followed Hermes, beaming and lighting up the whole dark underground with her happiness.
He had followed her up at a discreet distance, always sticking to the shadows, desperately and futilely hoping that before she reached that light she would recall the pomegranate and take that dreadful bite that would bind them forever.
But of course she didn't, not in such gloom, not under his eyes. In the sunlight, safe and smiling she had taken that supposed cursed bite, and that was that; she was completely free of him, and the chances of seeing her again were slim to none.
He had watched the pomegranate fall to the ground, forgotten and dead, and watched her run into her mother's arms before he could take no more, and with a swirl of his dark cape had descended all the way down to the center of that pit, to that hard throne and glass of wine that burned his throat and his eyes. At least, he thought it was the wine doing that…
He just had to accept the fact that he would never, in all of eternity, have her again; Hell, the chances of seeing her again, his fiery goddess, were scarce, and he held no hope, just as he had before he had met her.
He would be lonely yes, and colder than usual, but he would have to learn to cope. As he took another long sip of his wine he thought of the dark empire he was in charge of, and forced the silly fantasy of love to leave his head. His feelings would never be reciprocated, so why bother with them in the first place, was his wayward thinking.
It was better to have not loved at all, if love meant the pain he had to go through right now, without her…
He finished the last sip of wine when Minos, one of the three judges of the dead, entered. Like Hades he was not a ghost, although he, like all the others in this realm, did possess some threads of hollowness, as in he was not entirely real. He appeared to be as he was when he died, not gray or unblinking like all the other spirits but resembling the king he had been before he had died.
He approached Hades' throne slowly, the only abnormal thing on him—the result of his curse of being a servant to Hades—being the serpentine tail that extended out from the base of his back at the end of his spine and slithered up to cover the upper half of his body like bands of a sickening, scaly green. The tail, while ghastly, did serve a purpose other than to inspire fear—it was with his tail that Minos announced the level in which the damned, sinning soul was to be sent to.
As he stopped before Hades now that tail began to unwrap itself from around the upper part of his body, falling to the ground before slowly snaking its way back up as Minos regarded his lord with a critical eye.
With eyes that were a sinful burgundy Hades watched the tail wrap around his judge for him once, twice... Only two times.
Hades quirked a brow as a cold smile enveloped his features. "Two times, Minos? The second level of Tartarus is lust, as I recall. Are you accusing me of the crime of lust, dear Minos?"
"Yes, my lord," the demon that had been a king replied steadily, not even flinching when with a single clenching of his hand Hades shattered the wine glass he was holding it, reducing it to a pile of fine glass that rained down next to him.
"Oh? And why is that Minos? Do share…" The anger and the pain were wounds throbbing in his every word, and the judge heard it, lowering his dark eyes as his tail twitched on his shoulder.
"You lusted after her my lord, that maiden of light, of spring, and look where it has gotten you. You sinned because you stole her, and you wanted her for all your own. Am I correct?"
Hades made no answer; he did not have one. He could never be a liar, and he did not have the strength at the moment to agree to it, to even look his judge in the eye.
"So…" he softly muttered after a moment of silence, looking back to Minos with a bitter smile on his face. "What's my punishment Minos?"
"Your punishment has already been dealt with," replied the serpentine king. "She was taken from you forever, and now you are suffering. It is far worse than a usual punishment, isn't it?"
"Indeed," growled the dark lord, "Feelings…Who invented such silly nuisances?"
"You and your kin did my lord," Minos replied as he stepped back, a faint hiss escaping his lips as he began to fade back into the shadows in which he had emerged. "The gods are in charge of all, but isn't it ironic that you can not control each other, can't control your own hearts?"
Hades made no reply, and soon enough the room was silent again, the hissing sound gone along with Minos as he descended back down to his post in the darkest area of this murky world.
Left alone again Hades did not move, wished he had not destroyed his wine glass as the urge to block her out became stronger with each second spent suspended in this eternal silence, eternal rest. The final stop, the end of all things…Including his heart.
With a sigh he leaned back against the throne, tilting his head back so that his wine colored eyes were trained on the dark cavern like ceiling as the silence pressed in on him, mocking him. There was no light laughter to fill it, no sweet lilting voice…
"Persephone…" he muttered to the ceiling, and beyond it he could almost imagine that he saw her, staring up at the bright blue sky as she picked flowers with her mother. "What have you done to me…?"
Silence was his only answer.
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So what did you think? Was it so bad as to not review? I'd really love the support, just so I know if I should continue this or not… So, what are you waiting for? Review please, or I'll sick Cerberus on you!